Annan demands Syria to schedule withdrawal; Sfeir denies asking US to dismantle Hizbullah

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in Algeria he expects Syria to propose a "precise" timetable over full withdrawal of its armed forces and security forces from Lebanon by the fall on April.

He added this will be followed by full implementation of UN Security Council resolution number 1559 which was issued in September 2004 which called for complete withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon and dismantling the weapons of the militias.

The UN secretary general explained in a press conference after talks he had held with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that his special envoy to the Middle East Terje Roed-Larsen will return back to the region on April 7th to get a certain schedule on the Syrian withdrawal.